John 10:10: The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
GOD calls us to be uncommon, extraordinary, courageous, and strong, because He calls us to obedience, justice, love, faith, forgiveness, mercy, hope, service, adoption, righteousness, and He commands us to GO. . . beyond ourselves, our flaws, our insecurities, our fears, our friends, our families, our comfort zones, our church pews, our front porches, our city limits, our national borders, and find our identity, our purpose, our strength, our courage, our power and authority in Him, and then we’re able to do those greater but harder and seemingly impossible things, not for our glory but for His, not to please others but to please Him—GOD.
He doesn’t need us carrying on all our baggage but offering Him an empty storage, so He can fill us with His HOLY SPIRIT, and we can dwell in His Presence, in Light, Goodness, Peace, Love.
And He doesn’t need our abilities, just our availability—our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength—our surrendered will, our faithfulness, our full commitment, our immediate obedience and everything we are, everything we have ALL-IN, which speaks of love to Him, makes Him the LORD of ALL and says without fear, doubt, hesitation, shame, “Not my will, LORD. But let Your will be done.”
When we’re SOULED-OUT, GOD commissions us; He commands us; He purifies and transforms us through HOLY SPIRIT, equipping and empowering us to GO like His Son JESUS CHRIST and destroy the works of the adversary, do the work of an evangelist, sharing the Gospel, enlarging the Kingdom of GOD, and letting everyone know that GOD so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life, that we are saved by grace through faith in Him, JESUS, and He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him, JESUS.
Our strength, our courage, our salvation, our best hope is in Him, JESUS: GOD with us. Without Him, we can do nothing. But with Him, we can do all things, including bring the LIGHT of SALVATION and the TRUTH of GOD, JESUS CHRIST, to a world bound in darkness, corruption, deception, and sin. And this makes us a threat to the kingdom of darkness, to the adversary, who comes like a thief to steal, kill, and destroy, for where there is no Light, there is only darkness, and where there is no Goodness, evil will prevail.
From Genesis to Revelation, anyone GOD called, anyone GOD chose for service, for sonship, for adoption, for use was targeted, challenged, often persecuted, abused, and/or killed. The cost of following JESUS, obeying GOD was everything, including one’s life, and even King David in 2 Samuel 24:24, says he would not offer to the LORD His GOD that which costs him nothing.
And today, in matters of faith and spiritual warfare, the adversary uses the same plans, weapons, tactics against us. If he can't DISTRACT, DEFILE, or DESTROY us, he CONTAINS us until we get CONTENT, COMPROMISE, and CONFORM, becoming irrelevant or useless in service to the Kingdom of GOD. But we are not alone; GOD is with us, and we have a SWORD of the SPIRIT in the WORD of GOD and a good Advocate in Him: JESUS.
And this is our victory: FAITH in HIM, GOD.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen; faith comes by hearing and hearing by the WORD of GOD, and our faith is not in race, gender, institutions or traditions; our faith is in one Person, one AUTHOR and FINISHER, JESUS CHRIST.
And faith is when we get out of the corner we’ve been boxed, knocked in, stand up and fight for what we believe in, because we have confidence that GOD is with us, JESUS lives in us, and we’re never fighting our adversaries, battles, or giants alone.
So here are the real questions: Has the adversary cornered us? Stopped us? Detained us? Boxed us in? Are we content? Doing nothing? Have we been contained? Made useless, irrelevant? Or are we free and active? Equipped and empowered, doing what GOD called, created us to do?
